Black people 8 times more likely...

Former Member

Why are black people 8 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people? (Asian people are 3 times more likely).
Even though I asked the question, I kinda know the answer, but I'll let some replys come in first before I share my opinion.

Former Member

The police are racist. End of story.

Former Member

BVecause black people are more likely to commit crime. I'm trying to find the data, but the government has made it harder to find crime stats by ethnicity since they changed their website and became more politically correct.

Former Member

Originally posted by boomba
The police are racist. End of story.

All of them?

Former Member

Originally posted by boomba
The police are racist. End of story.

Wow, such a generalisation! Even black and asian officers, are they racist too?

I am sure there are some oficers who are racist, but as an institution I don't think they are. In any line of work there will be people who are racist, so we therefore say that every profession is racist. I know a man who makes pipes for a liveing who is racist, are all pipemakers racist. Similarly, there are a lot of racist football fans, are *all* football fans racist? No.
Don't generalise matey!

Former Member

Can only relate to what happens in Denmark, but when foreigners are more likely to get stopped by the police, it is that by percentages they are more likely to commit crimes.

Especially when they walk in big groups, they find the need of proving themselves, and that's usually when havoc begins.
Here they are most likely to get stopped, while being in a big group than when walking alone, or two and two.

Personally, if I'll see a big group I'll walk as far away as possible, while if I see one or two, I won't even bother to notice.

Former Member

Originally posted by Man Of Kent


All of them?

Perhaps not all of them, nonetheless I reckon that racism is institutionalised within SOME police forces in the country.

Former Member

on what basis?
Bearing in mind that 15% of the prison population is black, whilst only 4% of the general population is.
It seems that for some reason black people are 4-5 times more likely to commit, and then be convicted for a crime than a white person.
If this is the case then maybe the police are right to continue stopping and searching black people if they are more likely to find evidence of a past or future crime?

Former Member

Originally posted by Whowhere
on what basis?
Bearing in mind that 15% of the prison population is black, whilst only 4% of the general population is.
It seems that for some reason black people are 4-5 times more likely to commit, and then be convicted for a crime than a white person.
If this is the case then maybe the police are right to continue stopping and searching black people if they are more likely to find evidence of a past or future crime?

The same in Denmark, the number of crimes commited by foreigners, compared to the number of them in the general public is really unbelievable.

While I am not familiar with the situation of 'blacks' in Britain, I would say that in Denmark, it's all due to integration.

Former Member

Originally posted by Whowhere
on what basis?
Bearing in mind that 15% of the prison population is black, whilst only 4% of the general population is.
It seems that for some reason black people are 4-5 times more likely to commit, and then be convicted for a crime than a white person.
If this is the case then maybe the police are right to continue stopping and searching black people if they are more likely to find evidence of a past or future crime?

But the police could only logically stop and search a black person if another black was seen as a prime suspect when committing a crime. If it really is true that blacks commit more crime, then maybe there isn't anything wrong in searching blacks.

And the Met were accused of being 'institutionally racist' after the inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder. Surely there must be SOME officers in the Met who are racist.....

Former Member

Originally posted by boomba
And the Met were accused of being 'institutionally racist' after the inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder. Surely there must be SOME officers in the Met who are racist.....

Hmmm not that there was a political motive there... [/sarcasm]

I don't dispute that there are some racist police officers (bearing in mind that there are some racist people everywhere), but to class a whole insitution as racist is laughable.

Personally, I think that blacks are targetted, but suspect that there are genuine reasons for this. Perhaps it would be helpful to have all stats rather just the conviction rates and the stop and search rates...

Statisically, reports have previosuly stated that Blacks are more liekly to be charged and imprisoned and recieve longer sentaences than whites - even for the same crimes. What it like to see is this information

Former Member

It's a tricky issue. It is true that a big proportion of street crime- muggings, robberies- are committed by black people. From that point of view, the police is likely to find more illegal weapons when searching blacks than whites. However the perpetrators only account for a very small proportion of the black population. The great majority of blacks, like any other race, are hardworking decent people. And I can understand their frustration when they are being stopped and searched a tad too frequently. There have been a couple of documented cases of black men being stopped up to 40 times in one year because they happened to drive an expensive car. In the police's quick wit and wisdom black man driving expensive car equals criminal.

Former Member

So blame the popular media ...

Blame the black role models (think of the rap stars... not all of them by any means... but the majority)

Blame the higher rate of single parenting in black households

Blame the fact that so many police officers are being moved from rural areas (where the majority of the population is white) to citys where there is a more culturally diverse population.

What you should not do is blame the police force, who really have enough problems to deal with.
I'm not saying we should condon racism just because the police are understaffed...
What I am saying is we should look at the other reasons why this statistic may be true and adddress them, rather than assume the cause is racism and blame the police.

Former Member

Originally posted by Whowhere

Bearing in mind that 15% of the prison population is black, whilst only 4% of the general population is.
It seems that for some reason black people are 4-5 times more likely to commit, and then be convicted for a crime than a white person.

Typical misinterpretation of statistics. :rolleyes:

If 15% of the prison population is black, but only 4% of the general population, then certainly this suggests that black people are more likely to be convicted of a crime and imprisoned, but it doesn't suggest that they're more likely to commit crime.

If the police stop and search eight times more black people than white people then it stands to reason that more black people will be found to be criminals when stopped; this would be the case even if it was more likely that a white person were a criminal. It's the fact that black people are eight times more likely to be stopped that contributes to the higher black prison population; this higher population then causes the police to concentrate more on black people. It's a viscious circle.

Former Member

More blacks are stopped and searched on the street
More whites are investigated by the police as part of their enquiries..

Black people commit more street crime, muggings, gang violence etc. Such crimes are best dealt with on the street and at that time by police officers stopping and searching.

White people commit more of different types of crime. Domestic violence, fraud, receiving/handling stolen goods, etc etc. Those type of crimes cannot be dealt with by stopping people on the street.

More black people live under the poverty line and in so called 'ghettos' which is the reason for their increased level of street crime.

Nothing racist aboutit whatsoever, its just practical policing.

Former Member

First things first, I think we should all be able to express our opinion and state the facts without being called a racist.
Anyway, I think that it's simply the case that most crime is committed in the poorer, inner city areas, where most of the ethnic population is. This is a fact. There are also some inner city areas in Bristol where the population is mainly whites (eg, knowle), and there is a very high crime rate there as well.
However, the population that live in the expensiver areas away from the city centre are 99% white, and there is very little crime in these areas. If these people living in the expensiver houses were black, do you think that there would be as little crime? We'll never know...

Former Member

Also, I've personally lived in a multi-culteral area, and everytime I've been mugged (not many), or heard of a mugging (many times), its always a black person. I think that in a country where the black population is very little, the black people that commit these crimes are giving the whole of the black population a very bad name. I feel sorry for my respectable, hardworking black friends who I've been college and university with.